B737 check airman reports that the company's documentation provided to crews concerning controller p...

Attributes
ACN	1307886
Time
Date	201511
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	SLC.Airport
State Reference	UT
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Check Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

This aircraft was not controller pilot data link communications (cpdlc) equipped. However; this report is submitted to draw attention to the confusion and significant task loading that cpdlc adds to preflight duties. As a check airman and 21 year captain; I spent at least 25 minutes in the hotel room reading the fom bulletin on cpdlc. I still found it somewhat confusing because of the length of the bulletin. If the aircraft had turned out to be cpdlc capable; I felt I would need to reread the bulletin step by step in the cockpit to follow the procedure correctly. A normal crew change during a turn obviously does not have this time available. I am concerned that crews will make errors and delay flights.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Check Airman reports that the company's documentation provided to crews concerning Controller Pilot Data Link Communications equipment needs calcification/simplifying.

Narrative: This aircraft was NOT Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) equipped. However; this report is submitted to draw attention to the confusion and significant task loading that CPDLC adds to preflight duties. As a Check Airman and 21 year Captain; I spent at least 25 minutes in the hotel room reading the FOM Bulletin on CPDLC. I still found it somewhat confusing because of the length of the bulletin. If the aircraft had turned out to be CPDLC capable; I felt I would need to reread the bulletin step by step in the cockpit to follow the procedure correctly. A normal Crew change during a turn obviously does NOT have this time available. I am concerned that Crews will make errors and delay flights.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

B737 check airman reports that the company's documentation provided to crews concerning controller pilot data link communications equipment needs calcification/simplifying.